Hollenbeck Bike Lanes
On December 2, 2025, the Sunnyvale Council approved buffered bike lanes with the removal of parking. The vote was 6-to-1. This decision is the safest for biking and, in fact, all road users. It's a momentous occasion that is the culmination of over a year of intense campaigning, and we achieved it through perseverence and luck. We thank the many community members who contributed to make this happen and the Council for leading us toward our city goals.
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See below for details of the project.
EXISTING CONDITIONS: OPTION 3
​Existing conditions are dangerous:
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Hollenbeck Ave has no bike lanes. Yet, it is a critical north-south corridor serving many destinations.
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Cyclists have to share the road with cars regularly speeding at 35 mph.
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Cyclists are forced to go around parked cars into car traffic.
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Cars build up behind cyclists in the vehicle lane and illegally swerve into oncoming traffic to pass cyclists.
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Option 3 maintains existing conditions. Reject Option 3.
THE SOLUTION: OPTION 1
The City's proposed Option 1 is the only safe option. It will:​
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Install buffered bike lanes.
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Remove on-street parking.
These improvements will:
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Greatly improve safety for cyclists, especially children and new riders.
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Dedicate lanes just to cars so they won't be stuck behind cyclists or need to swerve into oncoming traffic to pass cyclists.
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Create unobstructed views for all road users, including drivers pulling out of driveways and everybody at intersections.
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Reduce car speeds by reducing car lane width from 20' to 11'.
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Increase bike ridership, thus reducing air and noise pollution.
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Complete a critical link in Sunnyvale's bike network, allowing children to bike to school and commuters to bike to work.
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Help the City reach its climate and transportation goals.
Option 1 (buffered bike lanes with parking removal) is safe.
REJECT OPTION 2
Option 2 (A or B) is not safe. It has these dangerous design elements:
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Narrow bike lanes
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Unbuffered bike lanes
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Door-zone bike lane due to parking on one side​
Option 2 has barely any safety features compared to Option 1. Option 2 has only 1 feature, and it is substandard: skinny bike lanes. No wonder Option 2 is unsafe.
Mary Ave and Sunnyvale-Saratoga Rd have Option 2 bike lanes, yet bike-car crashes happen almost every 2 months on each of these roads, proving that Option 2 is dangerous. Most of these crashes involve youths on bikes and are the fault of the driver.
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[Source: Sunnyvale police records]
FAQ
DOES ANYBODY BIKE ON HOLLENBECK?
Yes, over 100 people already bike on Hollenbeck daily, despite having no bike lanes and having to share the road with cars. School children already bike on Hollenbeck to get to these schools: Cumberland Elementary, Sunnyvale Middle, Cupertino Middle, Homestead High, and Challenger. The photos below show children biking on Hollenbeck on a typical school day. If so many people are willing to bike on Hollenbeck today, imagine how many more would bike if Hollenbeck were made safe.
CAN PEOPLE BIKE ON OTHER ROUTES INSTEAD?
In general, no. There are 2 parallel routes to Hollenbeck: Mary Ave and Sunnyvale-Saratoga Rd. These routes are infeasible and/or unacceptable for 3 reasons:
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Destinations on Hollenbeck can be reached only by traveling on Hollenbeck.
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Each parallel route lengthens the travel distance by 1 mile. That's equivalent to asking cars to go 3 miles out of the way. This is unacceptable for most people.
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Sunnyvale-Saratoga is a high-speed arterial that is dangerous and unpleasant to bike on. Cars speed at 50 mph on this 6-lane road. In the last 10 years, Sunnyvale-Saratoga was the site of 23 collisions involving cyclists.
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Currently, over 100 people bike on Hollenbeck daily, even though it's unsafe. Instead of needlessly directing people to take alternate routes, which are themselves unsafe, we should make Hollenbeck safe to bike on.
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* Collisions are bike-car collisions, some severe, reported by Sunnyvale police. Number of cyclists is daily count reported by Staff. There are almost 2x the number of collisions on Hollenbeck as on Mary when normalized by bike volume.
WHERE WILL RESIDENTS PARK?
The majority of Hollenbeck residents do not use or need street parking. On a typical night, only 11% of street parking is occupied, representing 39 cars. Hollenbeck houses have at least 4 parking spaces and on average 5 parking spaces on their property. Many have more. 75% of houses have at least 1 unoccupied driveway space. Many of the 39 cars can be parked on the driveway. For the small minority of residents who need additional parking, side streets are available within a short walk away.
Replacing street parking with bike lanes has been done before on other Sunnyvale residential streets. Sunnyvale Avenue, Maude Avenue, and Homestead Road are three notable examples. Parking usage on Sunnyvale Ave and Maude Ave before bike lanes were much higher than on Hollenbeck (62% and 26%, respectively, vs. 11% on Hollenbeck). After bike lanes were installed, these roads became safe for cyclists, and residents were able to resolve their parking needs.
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* Street parking data collected by the City. Driveway parking data collected by Sunnyvale Safe Streets.
WHERE WILL DELIVERY VANS, VISITORS, AND CONTRACTORS PARK?
Delivery vans will continue to make deliveries like they normally do by briefly pausing on the street. Visitors, contractors, and the handicapped can park on the driveway and, if needed, residents can move their car to a side street to make room. For large construction projects, contractors can apply for a city permit to termporarily use street space.
WHERE WILL I PUT MY GARBAGE BINS FOR PICKUP?
Garbage bins can be placed in the buffer, between the bike lane and the car lane. In the buffer, garbage bins do not block bike or car travel. On Sunnyvale Avenue where buffered bike lanes were implemented in 2023, residents place their garbage bins in the buffer.
WILL EMERGENCY VEHICLES BE ABLE TO GET THROUGH?
Yes, emergency vehicles will be able to get through. Option 1 will actually improve emergency response times by ensuring that a parked car will never be in the way of a car that needs to pull over to let an emergency vehicle pass. In contrast, parked cars in the current condition hamper the passage of emergency vehicles.
WILL OPTION 1 CAUSE MORE TRAFFIC CONGESTION?
No, Option 1 will not cause more traffic congestion. On the contrary, Option 1 is expected to reduce traffic congestion. Here are the top 3 reasons why:
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Option 1 does not change the number of car lanes, so Hollenbeck's car capacity remains unchanged.
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Currently, car traffic slows to the speed of a bicycle whenever a cyclist is forced into the travel lane by a parked car. With Option 1, drivers are separated from cyclists so cars do not bunch up behind cyclists.
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With safe bike lanes, more people will choose to bike instead of drive on Hollenbeck, thus reducing car congestion. Children will be able to bike to school instead of their parents driving them to school.
WILL OPTION 1 CAUSE DRIVERS TO SPEED?
No, Option 1 will not cause drivers to speed. The current car lane width is effectively 20' when there's no parked car, which is most of the time, and 12' otherwise. Option 1 reduces the car lane width to 11'. Narrowing car lanes has the known effect of reducing car speeds. [Ref: NACTO Design Guide: Lane Width]. Future vertical barriers, if installed in the buffer, will also have the effect of reducing car speeds.
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The scope of the current study is limited to adding bike lanes on Hollenbeck. It is not meant to address car speed and volume. Instead, the City's Traffic Calming Program is available for these concerns. A separate study would have to be initiated for traffic calming.
DO CITY POLICIES SUPPORT BIKE LANES?
Yes, city policies unequivocally prioritize bike lanes over street parking. The City's Land Use and Transportation Element of the General Plan says:
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Prioritize safe bike lanes over street parking (LT-3.8, LT-3.9, LT-3.10).
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Promote transportation modes in this priority: pedestrians, non-automotive (bicycles, ...), mass transit, delivery vehicles, single-occupant automobiles (LT-3.6)
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Prioritize subsidies to and support for bicycling (LT-3.15).
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Eliminate subsidies to car parking and driving (LT-3.13).
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Support alternatives to the single-occupant automobile such as walking and bicycling (LT-3.1).​
WILL BIKE LANES DECREASE MY HOME VALUE?
No, bike lanes will not decrease home value, according to many studies done across multiple US cities. On the contrary, national organizations like National Association of Realtors and Urban Land Institute report that high quality bike lanes help to increase property values. Bike lanes serve as a serious selling point. CEOs for Cities pegs the property value increase due to bike lanes at $34K.​​
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In contrast, the presence or absence of street parking does not clearly affect home prices one way or the other, according to urban studies research done at Portland State University. ​